"I have hitherto been assuming that such teachers...do not fully realize what they are doing and do not intend the far-reaching consequences it will actually have. There is, of course, another possibility. What I have called the trousered ape and the urban blockhead may be precisely the kind of man they really wish to produce.
The differences between us may go all the way down. They may really hold that the ordinary human feelings about the past or animals or large waterfalls are contrary to reason and contemptible and ought to be eradicated. They may be intending to make a clean sweep of traditional values and start with a new set."
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
"This explains much about how Trump — whose company has been linked with everything from housing discrimination to outright fraud — has gotten away with so much. His standards are low; his ethics, nonexistent. And yet he is adored by millions. This says as much about him as it does about us."
Paul Brandus, The Real Reason Behind Trump's Meltdown
‘The banks are circling the wagons. Somebody’s got a problem.’
Charles R. Geisst, as quoted in There’s Nothing Normal About the Fed Pumping Hundreds of Billions Weekly to Unnamed Banks on Wall Street
Today's Non-Farm Payrolls Report missed to the downside, and the growth of wages was nil.
And so it was time for a rally!
Stocks were propelled higher. Gold and silver were off a bit, and the Dollar was also lower.
The Street was piling into risk, on the assumption that if they are bold enough in denying what is expected of them, that the Fed will be compelled to bail them out once again.
On one hand the recent reliance on daily Fed repos to balance the banking systems cash on hand could be argued to be a return to what was more commonplace in the 1980's. Of course, those were times of tremendous economic strain, now long forgotten, in the aftermath of the Volcker interest rate gambit, and the oil shocks to the economy.
But then there are the deficits, which seem to be a hallmark of Republican governance. All that debt issuance by the Treasury to finance the tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations must surely require something extraordinary to support it.
It is the mark of our genius to hold several contradictory assumptions and observations at the same time, and blithely push on as though they were all tied together by impeccable reason.
Like the recent weather, that flashes from hot humid summer to the crisp coolness of autumn overnight, we seem to be finding our balance in the extremes. The madness of one side is answered with the obsessive madness of the other. Madness abounding, and so it all seems chaotic, but normal— the new normal, thoroughly modern, so climb on board.
But still, there is that nagging feeling that something behind the scenes is going extraordinarily wrong, and that our complacency and confidence are at best bravado, but at worst a kind of madness. And who can call it madness if all our best and brightest deny it? What happens if we declare madness to be common sense, a sign of proper belonging, or even a patriotic duty?
As Sir John Harington once noted, 'Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.' And say we same the same for madness? If we are all mad together, who but the mad would call it madness?
There is a feeling that despite all the talk of our exceptionalism and glorious excellence, that something very wicked this way comes. That one cannot make their deal with the devil without paying, at long last, some terrible price.
Quid pro quo, Clarice?
Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
